Customer Reviews

Crazy Star

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Crazy Star," by Rustin Larson (Loess Hills Books, 89 pages, 41 poems, $15.95).

Larson's sharp wit, self-deprecating humor and unflinching observations make the poems in this collection memorable - and often very funny. Larson, who lives in Fairfield and teaches at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, combines a droll comedic touch with a strong sense of compassion as he describes everything from a sad, overweight basset hound named Cleo to his aging father who "grumbles at the Hardee's / because they don't serve rolls at five in the afternoon."

Larson also perfectly captures what it was like to grow up in Iowa during the 1960s and 1970s - and what it's like to look back on that era from middle age. Some of the most moving works recall Vietnam and its painful effect on communities and families: "On television, helicopters are landing; / camouflaged soldiers scramble through a field / of tall yellow grass. Sister reads from her textbook / and talks about negotiations in Paris. / Father, the American / says nothing. / Brother will go to college next year / join a fraternity / of budding professionals."

Instead, Brother joins the soldiers in Saigon.

You don't have to work hard to understand and appreciate Larson's poetry. You'll find familiar places in his poems, from Spillville to Des Moines, and familiar people - a fifth-grade crush, housewives "in leaf-and-bird-embroidered dresses," and the local librarian, "her skin the hue of leathery bound classics."

In Larson's elegant voice, these everyday scenes lead to unexpected explorations of the human heart.